


Lies That Were Never Told

by evilly_laughing



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics)
Genre: Alfred Pennyworth is the Best, Batfamily (DCU), Batfamily is a Mess (DCU), Brotherly Bonding, Coming Out, Fluff and Humor, Gay Jason Todd, Gen, Good Older Sibling Jason Todd, Jason Todd-centric, Light Angst, M/M, Mentions of homelessness, Minor Bart Allen/Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent, Minor Internalized Homophobia, Minor Jonathan Samuel Kent/Damian Wayne, Minor Stephanie Brown/Cassandra Cain, Oblivious Batfamily, Protective Jason Todd, Supportive Batfamily (DCU), Supportive Boyfriend Roy Harper, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-16 15:03:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28583940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilly_laughing/pseuds/evilly_laughing
Summary: “You’re the straight brother.”“Oh?” Well that’s news to Jason, a very queer individual with a boyfriend.However, he apparently doesn't have a way to come out to his family. And he has to find one soon because said boyfriend is finding it very interesting that Dick keeps sending him t-shirts that say 'ALLY.'
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Everyone, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Roy Harper/Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Comments: 111
Kudos: 509





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Every Fic Deserves A Song:  
> I Am The Walrus by The Beatles

“That settles that then,” Dick Grayson says with the finality that only a confident man such as Dick Grayson can speak with. The man in question is currently fixing his jammed grapple gun so he can swing away from the massive drug bust they made in the warehouse below.

Jason grumbles, “What?” He’s angry. Mostly because he has better places he’d rather be, and more importantly, better people he could be with. Apparently, no one else could back-up Red Robin and Nightwing. Jason shoves his gun in his holster with more force than necessary and thanks a higher being that with the Red Hood, no one could see his pout.

“You’re the straight brother.”

“Oh?” Well that’s news to Jason, a very queer individual with a boyfriend.

“Yep,” Dick sings, smiles, seems totally oblivious to the fact that Jason’s response was not exactly encouragement. “Red Robin finally came out to Batman last week!” He finishes with excitement, ever aware of the open environment and their cowls so using code names.

Jason turns to look at the kid, Tim Drake is not looking at him but his nervous fiddling with his utility belt gives him away. He may have come out to Bruce, but he’s not confident in coming out to Jason. He asked Dick to do it for him, which probably means that someone else could have been back up and he didn’t have to be here. Jason sighs at the thought of his lost evening, time to be a good ‘brother.’

“He didn’t know already? World’s Greatest Detective my ass.” Tim chuckles a bit and looks up at him. Success. “So, how’d you do it? Big fanfare? A sign? A cake? Was there confetti?”

“He-” Dick starts to answer for Tim.

“I,” Tim interrupts, getting a nod from the older man to go on, “may have procrastinated it until I got captured and thought I was going to die alongside Batman so I turned to him and told him I was with Bart and Conner and when he didn’t respond I got really freaked out that he wasn’t going to accept me and I may have rambled on a bit about my struggle with identity, sexuality and gender wise, and how I finally accepted myself as I am right now and there were some tears and I went over my preferred pronouns, which are he/they. In the end, it turns out he just had a key in his mouth that he stole from a grunt that would shut down the kill program so that was why he wasn’t responding.”

Jason couldn’t help it, he started laughing. “Ah, Red, you make quite the impression.” He held his hand out for a fist bump with Tim’s own. Then, Jason looked back to Dick, who had the widest smile on his face. Fuck, this wasn’t going to be good.

The police sirens down below disrupted his dread, though, and the vigilantes scrammed.


	2. First Gift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> normal is an illusion that no one should try to be

It’s the next morning. To be exact it’s nine thirty the next morning. Dick must have done all of his scheming last night and ordered the item because, when Jason is about to serve Roy breakfast, said boyfriend’s attention is otherwise occupied with a knock at the apartment door.

Jason grabs his gun from under the kitchen island and eyes the one on the back of the fridge. Roy rolls his eyes at Jason’s PERFECTLY REASONABLE response and swings the door open to their neighbor, Mr. Washington. This does not relax Jason all the way though, as Mr. Washington holds a small box, terribly wrapped with paper that looks like rainbows threw up the designs on it.

“Whatcha got there?” Roy asks the neighbor, who looks like he does not at all want to be there. Mr. Washington, for his part, observes the eyesore and shrugs.

“I would have no idea. But there is a card for “Little Wing” on it and I know that’s no body in my place.”

Jason puts his gun down, sighs, and walks into Mr. Washington’s eyeline, giving the eggs one last look to make sure they are not going to burn in his absence.

“Sorry about that. I believe it was supposed to be left at our door.”

Mr. Washington, suspecting a lie, looks Jason up and down while moving the package closer to his chest. “You’re ‘Little Wing?’”

Jason’s smile looks too forced but he can’t help it. “My older brother thinks he’s a riot.”

Roy, standing watching all of this go down, offers to take the box and starts sending their neighbor on his way. Jason gets back to his eggs, already knowing that he is seen as the Unsociable One of the couple and not bothering to correct this title.

Just as Jason perfectly transfers Roy’s breakfast onto the plate, Roy walks in, the package already ripped open.

“Roy! We should scan it first! It could be a bomb!”

“Yes, Jay,” he replies sarcastically. “A bomb wrapped-” “Trickster. Joker.” “-horrendously. That has Dick Grayson’s-” “Clone. Shapeshifter. Clay.” “-handwriting and says ‘Hey, Little Wing, I want to thank you for last night. RR was so scared, but I’m so glad you could be there for him. And I know you’re here for me. Blah, blah, blah. Past mistakes. I wasn’t the Big Brother I should have been. Blah, Blah, be together more. Blah, family, blah.”

“Shit.” Dick Grayson is a storm of good intentions nowadays and Jason Todd is the poor sod he’s set his targets on. He’s going to have to suffer through it because, at this point, there is no escape. “What was in the box?”

Roy, deadpanned face, holds up a black mug that says 'Supportive Brother' on it in LGBTQ+ pride colors. Roy’s expression is only highlighted when strands of his mid-length hair falls from behind his ears and covers his eyes. And yeah, it is way too early to be dealing with this shit. Their lucky Roy was at least wearing pants when he opened the door to Mr. Washington. It is also not fair. Jason wanted to spend the morning in a lazy way of eating breakfast, cuddling, and reading, Roy his new mechanics novel Jason got for him for Christmas and Jason his book of classic poetry that Alfred lent him. Instead, Jason has to deal with this situation, which is partly Jason’s fault. He didn’t correct Dick last night, but Jason's going to put this blame on the heteronormative ideals of society making one’s default straight until proven otherwise. 

Jason stalls by pouring Roy orange juice. Without looking up he answers Roy’s unuttered questions with a fake flippant tone. “Oh yeah, last night Red Robin came out to me. Y’know, when I was at the docks with Nightwing and him, as their back-up. No one else could go, remember? We had to cancel dinner. That was a shame. I hope you had a good evening in, though. Did you end up watching that movie we were planning on? The documentary about-”

“Jason. Don’t tell me about the parts of the night I was there for. Why don’t you tell me about the ones I wasn’t, because apparently something happened.”

Jason tries to feign innocence. He even puts his plate next to Roy’s on the island so that he could sit and eat, hopefully shoving as much food in his face as possible to deter more questioning. Still, Roy doesn’t sit next to him. He stands away from his food, the stupid mug still in his hand and wow, it even glittery. That should have been an assumption with Dick.

“Yeah.” He pushed a forkful of eggs in his mouth. “Tim came out. He was a little scared. I guess that I wouldn’t accept him but-”

“You haven’t come out yet.” It was an observation so Jason had no reason to respond. “Jaybird, Dick writes in his note that he wants to spend more time with the Straight Brother.” So Roy had less detecting to do and more reading the facts. That’s okay. Jason’s okay. He shoves another forkful into his mouth, not even finished with the previous.

Roy moves to sit next to him. “Jay, baby.” Oh and that’s the tone of voice that means they’re talking serious. Or maybe they already have been? “Do you wanna tell me why you haven’t come out to your family?”

“I never said I was straight,” Jason pouts. He feels helpless, out of control, and in that split second he turns those feelings he never wants into the all to familiar anger. “You know I died before my first kiss?! I was figuring myself out still! I was a child! Not that the Dickhead was there to see me! And yeah, even if I knew deep down I wasn’t ‘Normal,’ I was not going to ever tell the family that lifted me off the streets. That gave me a roof over my head and clothes and food and showers and warmth and comfort and safety and maybe the Golden Child came out but he was perfect and I was trash and.” He trails off, having lost momentum when he started his list and only able to breath deep, shaky breaths now. Roy starts rubbing his back and he leans into the touch. 

“And then I was Red Hood. And I was bad. And I was kind-of good. And I had kind-of a relationship with them but it was loose. And they only called me in emergencies. And I didn’t know when to say. And I didn’t want to give them more reasons to treat me differently. And I told myself, it didn’t really matter. They wouldn’t care to know so why bother telling them. And I was, am, really just… a little scared still.

“But I’m going to tell Dick tomorrow. I pushed it off for long enough.”

“You don’t have to, Jaybird. Don’t do this because you feel pressured,” Roy whispers into his side.

“I want to. I think it might feel nice to let other people know.” Jason grabs Roy’s hand and his boyfriend immediately starts moving his thumb against Jason’s hand. “But tomorrow.”

This prompts Roy, “What are your plans for today?”

As the sun continues rising in the sky, Roy and Jason sit on the couch, reading and arguing because it turns out, Roy really did watch that documentary without him.


	3. Second Gift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> refrain from outing people without consent

“Tell Wing he dropped the present off at the wrong door,” Jason grumbles into the comms in his helmet. He says this, mainly, because it is easier than saying, “Tell Wing he assumed the wrong sexuality.”

Oracle answers with, “Oh you got a present too? My mug says ‘Supportive Bestie.’ The glitter is definitely an eyesore but considering Nightwing’s style, I believe it is pretty tame.”

“Small victories,” comes in the Red Hood’s patented sarcasm. “Could you tell the idiot to meet up with me tonight?”

Oracle’s voice grows confused but not judgmental. Thank the universe for Barbara Gordan. “Yeah. He’s finishing up the drug ring case with Red now, but if you need immediate help B is free.”

“No, no. NO. NO. I just- tell him to meet me after.” He gave Oracle a location and sighs, releasing the tension built up from the conversation and they hadn’t even talked about anything important. Fuck this future conversation, though. That’s going to be a bitch. But he can do it. Roy offered to come, moral support he had said in a whole nother conversation, moral support with weapons that included arrows and crying on command. Yet, Jason thought he should do it on his own. Still, he is doing it where he can leave the helmet on. No need for the Dickhead to look him in the eye.

So, Jason does have a plan. Nightwing drops onto the roof. Jason points out that the OG Robin made a mistake, and yeah, he takes pleasure in this part but, sue him, Jason likes it when he is not the one wrong. Then, Dick, if he follows the script, would say, “Okay.” No. “I support you.” No, fuck no. “I love you.” Hells no. See here is where Jason’s plan starts failing because he doesn’t even know what he would want his older brother to say. 

Roy tried to interject Jason’s important planning time by telling him, it’s Dick, he’ll just say, “Holy Gaydar, Batman! You sure picked up a lot of queer fellas.” 

If Roy’s right, Gotham will see Red Hood throw Nightwing off a building tonight.

Thus far, the script has been followed, however, and Blüdhaven’s vigilante drops onto the roof.

“You do have my number. You know, you don’t have to go through O,” Dick chirps. His smile is wide and his hair matted with sweat. It has been a good patrol.

Jason smirks under the helmet and joins the banter, “I was planning on Carrier Pigeon but I feared the Demon Brat may adopt it.”

Dick laughs and looks like he is about to add to what Jason’s said, continuing a conversation that is not the one they need. And Jason feels his confession building up in him, balancing on the edge of his tongue, so easy to swallow back down again. He wants to do this. He needs to get it out.

“But I did call you here for a reason,” he begins.

“Yeah, what’s up, Little Wing?”

“Yeah, you know my neighbor saw that package. I’m never going to get my reputation back,” he kids.

Dick gets defensive but it’s still mostly jokes. “If I got your address wrong, it’s because you never let us know where you’re staying!”

There is a reason for that, Jason doesn’t tell him. He knows. Jason moves to sit on the roof ledge and Dick mimics the action. Their feet dangling over Gotham’s city streets, their eyes focusing on the skyline in front of them.

“Yeah,” is let out in an exhale. “Your note is wrong too. I am not the Straight Brother on account of the fact th-”

“I knew you were going to say this!” Dick almost shouts and Jason flinches. He’s startled a bit, okay. It was a natural reaction to the outburst during a relatively silent night.

“That’s why,” the elder continues, “I asked Little D and he said it was okay to tell you.”

Jason gets side tracked. “What?”

“I knew you were going to say, ‘our other brother is straight.’” Dick starts mocking Jason’s voice, though not well. His version sounds as though Paul Giamatti was trying to do Vin Diesel and it did not work.

“Okay,” disregarding the whole display entirely, “and Da-Robin, obviously gave you permission to tell me that he is not?”

“Yeppers. The Baby Bat is asexual.”

So clearly, upon seeing that Jason accepted both Tim and Dick, Damian decided that he would take his chances with the Outcast Brother. It is, sort of sweet, that the little Brat still wants him to be in the know. Pride warms Jason’s chest as he realizes how far the kid has gone from the ninja assassin he saw with the League to the role of, well not so innocent, but a young child nonetheless. Though Jason jokes, about animals all becoming his pet, Jason is happy that Damian has found a place to feel safe at. With that thought, he has to push the helmet off his head to let out the kind turn of his lips. A mask still hides the emotion in his eyes but, to Dick, it must have been enough.

“Soooo, I got you this.” Dick Grayson ruins the moment with his gleeful tone. He holds up a white t-shirt, Jason’s size, with bold, black lettering, ‘ALLY.’ Nightwing has a smile so wide, Jason is certain he can hear the hero’s chapped lips cracking. “I figured it would be really nice if you came over to tie-dye it with him! I got purple, gray, and black paints and he has his own shirt that says ‘ACE.’ Then, when we all go to pride, and you're coming with, you guys can wear it. It would be super supportive, Hood! And you can-” 

The older vigilante turns into a squealing mess as he goes over how cute it would be and that Damian is very artistic and it would be super nice to let him be creative over this while making a purposeful mess and Jason can’t even stop the man when he tries. Finally, Dick dies down and he can get a word in.

“It’s February. Unless, there was a scheduling change, Pride is in June.” It’s not what he wanted to say, but his point of hesitance comes across. Nightwing’s shoulders lower.

“I know. I KNOW. But I got so excited.” Dick turns to face towards the city again but Jason only watches him. “I wanted to share this with him. I wanted to do something nice that he could glare at and ‘tt’ while enjoying himself in his expression of freedom... It’s okay, though. It is. I know this is a lot you didn’t sign up to deal with, Hood.”

Fuck. It’s the underlying emotions of sorrow and dejection in Dick Grayson’s words that get to him.

Jason rips the stupid fucking shirt out of Nightwing’s hands. “Fuck you. My shirt is going to look the best. I don’t care if the Brat has the expressionism down. I can fucking tie dye.”

Nightwing’s laugh is a little forced and a little wet. Tear build up in the domino masks are never comfortable but Jason will do him the favor of becoming ignorant.

“But, ‘Wing, do not say I have to DEAL with any of this. That’s not what our family is about. It is about the privilege to experience events together. Not muster through them like we are hardships to each other with all of our own aspects.” Jason almost threw up in his mouth a little there. Yeah, he’s done with Feelings tonight.

Dick lays his head on his little brother’s shoulder with a deep sigh. He whispers, “I couldn’t have asked for a better Little Wing. You're amazing, Jason. Thank you.”

And that seems to end the conversation. Not the one Jason needed, but maybe the one Dick did. They stare out at Gotham and see the silhouettes’ of their rooftop partners swinging through the night.

“Oh, what did you call me to say?”

“Um, I’ve got a… case that I want another pair of eyes to look at.” Fuck.

“Okay. I can do that.” Dick almost moves to get up.

“It can wait.”

And with a content smile, his older brother settles back into his place next to Jason.


	4. Third Gift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> people don't DESERVE to know how you identify, that's yours to reveal

Roy had been asleep by the time Jason got back, which was planned. Jason knows his boyfriend tries to stay up to be ‘On Call’ if anything were to go sideways when Red Hood patrols alone. Jason also knew tonight he would really make an effort not to sleep because he would want to be there for the aftermath of ‘Jason’s Coming Out.’ However, considering THAT scheduled event did not occur, Jason preferred to slip into the apartment silently, unnoticed.

It wasn’t like Roy would be pushy. Jason knew going into the relationship what kind of person Roy is. That’s half of what convinced him to date the man, the other part included Roy’s biceps. Jason had displayed parts of himself to Roy that no one else had seen with Jason’s consent. And Roy saw everything. Everything Jason was, is, did, said, loved, became, regretted. And Roy knows. Knows how fragile Jason really is. How one word, one action, one. particular. laugh. could break him. But Roy handles Jason like he’s not breakING. Jason’s like a wall, rotted and worn down, just waiting for that last push, yet standing still for now. Roy won’t ignore his cracks so to speak. He covers them up, though, mending the wall with care in such a way that makes the foundation more stable than Jason has ever seen before.

So Roy might press, kid, tease, and worry. But he’d give Jason room the moment he says, seriously. And Jason does the same for him. Just, this time, Jason didn’t even think he’d be able to get past with the ‘ALLY’ t-shirt without Roy laughing hysterically, so Jason patrolled late, circled back an unnecessary amount of times, and came home at a time where his boyfriend is sure to be asleep. 

It was helpful to clear his head. Jason realized at around 4 that he didn’t need to a ‘coming out.’ He can just talk about his boyfriend, kiss a guy, make a joke, out himself in small ways. He doesn’t need a speech or to give backstory. He can just BE and let them all figure it out. They are supposed to be detectives.

When he came in for the night, his new approach in mind, Roy was on the couch. A weapon experiment was on the coffee table in front of him, along with the scribbles of his drafts. The throw pillow was covered in his tangled hair and Jason cringed while passing the sleeping archer, knowing the mop would be unruly in the morning. Even Roy’s neck was bent in a weird angle, his legs half out of his jeans as if he was uncomfortable and started taking them off before giving up. All of it just showed what an absolute mess Jason’s partner is. Jason threw a blanket on top of him and Roy snuggled into it while simultaneously also almost falling off the couch. It was adorable.

The morning is less so. Jason wakes up to a gym bag hitting his head. Ouch.

Granted, Roy is never up before Jason so usually the roles are reversed and Roy has probably been waiting for this revenge for all the time they lived together. But patrol last night/early morning ran so long, Jason couldn’t help but ignore every single one of his alarms.

“Jaaaayyyyybird!” Roy trambles onto the bed. Jason doesn’t move even though he feels Roy crawling over to him. Roy gets extremely close to Jason’s face and Jason had the delusional hope that his boyfriend would kiss him awake. Roy stick’s his wet finger in Jason’s ear to give him a Wet Willie.

Jason’s eyes open immediately, glare already queued up, and Roy looks like the child who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Except he’s the grown man who got caught with his finger in the Red Hood’s ear. 

Roy yelps and moves his hand back with speed Wally would be proud of. The action causes his hand to hit the bed frame, of course, and Roy whines in pain.

The next “Jaaaayyyyybird!” is sad and pathetic.

Jason rolls his eyes and gets up. It’s kind of surprising, Roy is not only already awake but dressed in gym shorts and a sweatshirt. He even has their duffel bag ready to go for their afternoon workout, and look, they aren’t exactly billionaires with unlimited space, they have to go to the local gym like everyone else. Roy does claim that the Watchtower has a training room they could use but both of them agree that it is better to actively avoid the Justice League base and the Leaguers who might be there.

“Morning.” Jason grunts and begins to brush his teeth. It was a rough night, he should have woken up Roy to sleep with him in their huge bed. 

“So, how is Dick?” Roy tries for casual and misses by a long shot.

Jason huffs, spits the toothpaste, and turns to see Roy. “It went alright, okay? I told him.” And hey, that wasn’t supposed to be what he says. He wasn’t supposed to lie.

Before Jason can add anymore nonsense to the statements he just spewed, a phone dings. 

Roy looks at him with his hands up, “Not mine,” and walks away.

Jason picks up his phone, seeing briefly that it’s a little past twelve, and noting the many missed messages from a DG.

‘Heyyyyyy sry abt all that 2nite but im so glad ur go 2 pride w us as ally’ sent 5 hours ago.

Oh no, Dick.

‘and we didnt ur case!’ sent 5 hours ago.

The fake one he made up, Dick, that one he lied about because Jason is apparently a big liar now.

‘im back in blud tho’ sent 5 hours ago.

‘aw man i fel sooooo bad’ sent 4 hours ago.

‘tim said hel come ove 2 help’ sent 4 hours ago.

‘hel be over on his lunch! bye jay :)’ sent 4 hours ago.

The new message was from TD. It read: ‘omw’ sent 2 minutes ago.

Fuck. 

Roy pops his head into the bedroom, totally ignorant to Jason’s inner turmoil. Or he’s just used to it? “Banana? And I’m making a smoothie if you want but don’t throw it up while you work out, maybe?”

“Sorry, gonna have to skip today.”

Roy pouts and it looks like even his ponytail droops.

“You go on, I have Tim coming over. We’re working on a case.”

Jason texts Dick a ‘Thank you,’ and then pauses for a moment.

'What address did you give him???' sent now.

There’s a knock at the door and Roy flings it open to meet Mr. Washington dragging the rumpled suit-wearing coffee addict Jason is expecting. Mr. Washington does not look amused.

“Little Wing?” he prompts. “I believe this is Tim Wayne?”

The person in question looks up from his phone, offers a wave, and then goes back to typing.

“Ah yeah, we’ll take him,” Roy answers, exchanging Tim and handshakes as if it's a business transaction but Tim does not seem to mind.

Roy takes care of Mr. Washington for now, but Jason predicts he’ll need to bake the man cookies or get him a fruit basket in apology of all the shit he’s having to deal with though.

Tim makes himself at home, immediately raiding the kitchen. “I’ve got a half hour, where’s the case?” They mumble over a protein bar as they starts Jason’s coffee 

Roy looks at Jason, halfway amused. “Have fun, babe,” Roy says, picking up the gym duffle and going to head out. 

Jason whips his head around to look at Tim who is not at all paying attention to the word’s that just came out of Roy’s mouth because, right, Jason’s a liar and Roy thinks he’s out and Tim thinks he’s straight. And now Roy is coming over and kissing Jason’s cheek before leaving. Jason moves his head a bit, a sad attempt to back away. Roy looks at him confused.

When the door closes, Jason directs all his attention to Tim, who saw the goodbye display of affection and is staring. Fuck it, Jason’s going to own it. That was his plan, is his plan, plan, planning, p l a n, plannnnnn-

“Did Roy stay over?” Tim questions, looking at the couch with its blankets thrown about in a lazy effort of putting them away. Well, at least Roy tried.

“Yes. We live together.” Wow! Honesty!

Tim looks at the dartboard full of arrows above the neat shelves of tea, weapons experiments almost knocking over classic literature books, and their limited number of picture frames hanging, one of which, shows the two of them on a Star City roller coaster. 

“Yeah, practically,” Tim agrees. “Anyway, what’s the case?”

Honesty, Jason reminds himself. “There was no case, I just wanted to talk to Dick. So he made you come here for nothing. My bad.”

Tim hesitates, confused probably that Jason did that, or that he admitted to it, before shrugging. “Well, while I’m here, wanna go have lunch? I saw a place that sold good burritos on my way.”

“Just a block away?”

“Yeah, you know it?” They begin the walk.

“Yup. Oh, and sorry you got the wrong address, meant to correct Dick last time I saw him.”

“That’s okay. Your neighbor is nice.”

“Did you tell him you were looking for Little Wing?”

“Well, I didn’t know what alias you were living under-”

“Dude.”

“-so I made a practical decision based off nicknames Dick might’ve addressed-”

“Dude!”

“Jay, it was hilarious.”

Jason denies his brothers point as they pull out their seats on the pavement before the Mexican restaurant. 

“Thanks, by the way,” Tim adds. “For the whole ‘coming out’ thing.”

Eloquent use of words, Tim. “Did you think I wouldn’t accept you?” Tim’s silence answers the question and now he’s mad. “Geez, you think I’m homophobic or somethin’? Nice. Great. You know I fully support Dick in his sexual identity?”

And Jason may be overreacting, people walking past on the sidewalk give them stares, but fuck it. How could Tim think so lowly of Jason? Yes, Jason is a killer. He’s actively tried to murder members of his family and he operates a little differently then the rest of them. But to think that he’s shallow enough to judge someone by the way their love works? Jason’s seething. He’s about to get up. His ‘family’ doesn’t know him enough, and maybe his ‘family’ doesn’t care to know him enough for Jason to come out. Maybe-

“Hey, look. I’m sorry for not having faith in you, but this is a personal issue, not one that reflects anyway I think of you. And I know you’re fine with Dick but, in my head, I had this idea, that I had to be the perfect Robin, to do you justice. And not being straight, just seemed like a flaw, so I was failing to the title and the position, and you. Not, of course, you you, but this idea I created in my head of you, when you were… gone. This authority image of disappointment when I had done wrong. So I know you accepted Dick, but my head couldn’t get over these expectations that I was supposed to meet for you, so it was hard to admit that I wouldn’t reach them. That with all the training and missions… I’m not perfect.”

“Well, of course you're not. You have bad taste in food, you sleep way too little, your suit has wrinkles in it, and your hair needs to be cut. But having two boyfriends is not a flaw. It is an example of how well you are loved.” Gross that was way too sappy, Jason shoves the burrito in his mouth with superhuman speed to avoid saying anything else all emotion-y. Tim, for his part, looks like he’s about to cry into his extra large orange Fanta.

There are a few extra sniffles before Tim opens his mouth again. “How’d Dick come out to you?”

Now, Jason had to think about it. “He came over one night. B was on patrol and I was hurt so I couldn’t join. I was upset about it and when I saw Dick, I got even more mad because I knew he would get to. I think Dick saw this and he decided we would have some Brother Bonding Movie Night, I don’t know if you know, but we weren’t that close back then. Anyway, we watched _Perks of Being a Wallflower_. I stole Dick’s popcorn so as Sam took Charlie’s nachos and he said that was me. When it was revealed Patrick was her step-brother, I said that was him. It was only after Patrick was seen kissing another boy, that Dick agreed. The next day he came over with Wally and I just figured that was that.”

“Wait a second.” Tim has his processing face. “Dick and Wally dated?”

“Pretty sure they were a thing,” Jason comments between bites of his burrito.

“And, Dick wouldn’t have been out to B back then.”

“Dude, I don’t know. That’s all that happened, though. Why? How’d he come out to B?”

“Confetti, paints, a sign. The suit was rainbow for a while after.” Tim looks horrified and emphasizes his point with a big slurp of his drink.

“Why didn’t he buy another suit for work? Or get one of the multiple identical ones from his closet?”

Tim shakes his head in an exaggerated motion. “His other suit,” comes the dramatic whisper.

Jason almost dies, again, by laughter. A far better way to go. By the time Tim has to return to work, not that he really has to, being the boss and all that, Jason finds that he really did enjoy himself.

“Yeah, I have to get back to my boy,” Jason adds, meaning Roy and hoping Tim will know.

“Yeah, Roy will burn the house down in your absence it seems.” But Tim doesn’t understand they’re together?

“Not true. Sometimes, Roy burns it down while I’m there, too.” 

“Have fun with that friend of yours!” Nope, Tim does not. 

Jason sighs as he walks back. He pulls out his keys from his pocket to be ready to unlock the apartment door, when something stops him. A new keychain sits on his ring, reading ‘Proud Big Brother’ in black letters on top of a white rectangle. The back of it has a rainbow heart. Stupid bats. That still can’t tell he’s gay, apparently. That’s okay, Jason smiles. He’ll just have to try harder.


	5. Fourth Gift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> check out my other works, i have lots coming up

“I don’t know! Okay? Okay.” Jason concludes, half hysterical when Roy walks through their door after the gym. He’s written down all the components to this situation on a chalkboard in the middle of the living room. He even got the colored chalk to organize everything, not his usual go-to but if it works for some Bats and Birds, it might work for him.

“Okay?” Roy responds, mostly occupied by the giant chalkboard seeing as though it didn’t exist when he left.

“Babe, I tried,” Jason whines. He’s defeated. Jason loves making plans because of the satisfaction left when they succeed. He’s has a nice resume full of experience in this area from placing the bomb on the Batmobile, just because he didn’t detonate it doesn’t mean it didn’t work, to becoming an owner of the Iceberg Lounge as newly resurrected Jason Todd, and he’s still kind of bitter about Miguel but anyway; he sort of loves this shit! And it was a challenge in his mind until Jason laid all of the elements of this situation out. Then, he just felt tired. This wasn’t supposed to even be a situation!

“I failed.”

Roy sets down his gym bag and walks over to Jason. His voice is gentle, but still has the rough edges that Jason knows are pure Roy Harper. “Failed what, Jaybird?”

“To come out.” If Jason was a little bit more expressive he would’ve thrown his hands up in defeat, slid down to the middle of the floor, whipped around to face his boyfriend. As it stands, Jason just glares at the chalkboard.

“I talked to Dick and was about to confess, not that I really lied. But then he talked about Damian having just come out and I didn’t want to upstage that. Also, he got me this,” Jason gestures to the shirt that hangs by his Situation Grayson column. “And was so excited, I couldn’t not accept it. Then I tried to tell Tim.”

“I kissed you in front of Tim!” Roy announces with an energy Jason can not even manage to have right now.

“Yeah. And I told him we live together. He’s seen our apartment, Babe. ALSO! I started a groupchat with Dick and Tim.” Jason shows Roy his phone. The first message sent is a photo of the two of them. It was a selfie Roy had taken to send to Ollie, so the middle finger was centered, and Jason photo-bombed by pulling Roy’s hair. The chaotic, half blurry photo was Jason’s favorite, but Roy hadn’t ended up sending it. Because, when the phone consequently dipped down, it revealed Roy’s bare chest, nearly covered by the sheets.

Since they were in bed together.

Jason had also sent the message ‘My boyfriend.’

DG responded.

‘lolllll j’ sent 30 minutes ago.

‘takng he b out bromance :p’ sent 30 minutes ago.

‘tell roy hiiiiii!!!’ sent 30 minutes ago.

TD replied as well.

‘only wish you could be like us’ sent 15 minutes ago.

Jason watches Roy read the conversation twice.

“So I don’t know.” Jason concludes, once again.

“Were you,” Roy pauses, still dumbfounded, “too supportive?”

Jason gets defensive. “The fuck does that mean?” 

Roy points to the note under Conversation 1 that reads, ‘Straight Brother.’ “The fuck does this mean?” He walks to the kitchen and pulls out Jason’s newly gifted mug. “This?”

Jason sighs, giving into the fact that everything is crazy. 

He holds up his new keychain. “This?”

Roy looks like he wants to laugh.

Jason looks back at the chalkboard. ‘Hints’ is underlined with the side note ‘Too Subtle.’ ‘Talks’ is crossed off with ‘Interruptions.’ There is room for more approaches, though. Jason can do this. Roy looks hesitant. He comes over to comfort Jason and the other finally realizes the post-gym mess the archer is in.

“You’re taking a shower.”

Roy smirks. “Only if you join me.”

The next morning, he texts Duke. ‘How did you come out?’ 

Maybe the Signal would offer some light? Or was that too cheesy an idea to work?

‘to?’ sent now.

‘Them.’ sent now.

‘theyre detectives man’ sent now.

‘i didnt’ sent now.

Enlightening, Jason rolls his eyes. He thanks Duke and writes on his board in rainbow letters ‘DETECTIVES’ just to be spiteful. Dick’s first note is tapped underneath and labeled ‘physical evidence #1.’ The printed out text conversation follows with the gifts as he starts treating this like a proper case. 

Roy ends up with a sticky note on his head that says ‘Circumstantial’ and way too much chalk on his clothes for someone who has never touched the chalkboard.

Jason goes to the girls because his brothers are useless. The already running SB and CC group chat gets ‘How did you come out?’ 

His last message of ‘How did the performance go?’ got a photo response of Steph giving a thumbs up while Cass looks amazingly adorable with her ballet outfit and a bouquet of flowers in the background. Similarly, this question earns a selfie of Steph kissing Cas. Where their lips would touch is covered with their hands that are interlaced. A filter is applied as always and makes the subjects have flowers around their heads.

Jason writes up another option: ‘Public Displays of Affect.’ In this column, he files ‘With Boyfriend,’ as that might be a necessity. Not that he would want to with anyone else. There is another section added that day, however. 

‘Show Interest in Men.’

Roy erases the ‘n’ and draws a figure with a bow as well as arrows around it.

Jason had taken down a lot of strategies, but his training pushes him to find out everything and he knows he hasn’t yet. He has enough to follow through on some, put them into practice. Damian’s contact mocks him. Fuck it. 

‘How did you come out?’ sent now.

DW writes back immediately.

‘Call me.’ sent now.

Has he angered Damian? Was this a sore spot? Jason doesn’t speculate further as he lifts the phone to his ear.

“Todd,” Damian’s nasally voice answers, and for some reason it always surprises Jason that the assassin is still a kid. 

“Damian?” Silence. Why the phone call?”

“I… did not want to type it all. I did not… feel like it.”

An obvious lie but at least he wasn’t yelling because that, without fail, always causes Jason to want to yell back. He can stay calm now, though. “Okay.”

“Father had been on my back, though. Whenever Jon stayed over.” Jon? Superboy? “And was adamant about the distance the door had to be open when he was in my room.” Jason tries to think if Bruce was pushy during the time Jason was there until Jason remembered he never had a friend over. He never really connected with anyone at Gotham Academy and man Jason really needs to stop thinking. “It angered me, like much of Father’s unnecessary rules do, and I asked him why he insisted.” Oh no. “He sat down on my bed with Jon! He started talking about how we are growing-” 

“Okay!”

“It was not!” Damian roars.

“Yeah, no I get that.”

“I yelled at him to stop and that I am… asexual. That gave him pause enough for Jon to fly out of my window, mumbling about hearing his father. Coward,” Damian spits, yet Jason thinks he hears a smile. “His face was the color of his cape.” And Damian sounded absolutely sweet on this kid. 

“Do you still have to leave your door open?” Jason was curious.

Damian sighs. “Unfortunately. Father and I still had a talk about-”

“Do not want to hear that!”

“-boundaries and ones that should be respected. Don’t be an imbecile, Todd.”

“Hey!”

“Jon also had to talk to Father about our continuing relationship.” Yikes. Jason does not want to be that kid. “Does that answer your question?”

“Yeah. Uh, thanks,” brat “kid.”

Damian does his obligatory “tt” and hangs up.

Jason adds ‘Yell’ under ‘Interruptions’ and almost wants to yell himself out of frustration. What’s more? He clearly has to find Jonathan Kent and tell him what happens if he messes with the Red Hood’s youngest brother. Damian may think he can protect himself, and Batman might’ve gotten there first, but Jason is a known killer, so Superboy should get the message.

Roy comes along because he brings snacks. 

When Jason comes home, he’s exhausted from everything. He, at least, won’t have to give Tim’s boyfriend the shovel talk. Red Robin is way more scary and probably already has solid plans for their take down. Jason get’s to rest his Scary Brother Voice for a while. Unless Dick has a partner Jason doesn’t know about. Jason will have to investigate further. 

This plan is interrupted by a knock at the door. It is a very weary Mr. Washington handing Jason a bear. 

A stuffed bear.

A stuffed bear with an ace flag on its stomach and a note that says, ‘Todd you are un BEAR able. (Grayson instructed me to write that. However, I will destroy you if you kidnap Jon again. It is not appreciated.)’ 

Mr. Washington, who had obviously read the note by his weak attempts at discreetly looking around for kidnapped children, leaves slowly. Jason needs to update them all on his address. Or, the less likely, they all need to stop sending him shit, and Tim. 

He sighs. He, hopefully, won’t be getting anymore gifts because his plans should all start to work. Very soon, the secret, which Jason didn’t even want to be a secret, will be out.  In the meantime, he pins the note to the chalkboard. 

And Roy puts the bear on Jason's bookshelf.

**Author's Note:**

> no matter how you come out or don't, you are valid


End file.
